Cultural Intersections in Contemporary Art

2014-15: Through a Lens Darkly

This year, in collaboration with Ohio State, we will explore identity, social justice, and how images affect our understanding of race, identity, culture, and civil rights. Our featured events in WorldView include the two exhibitions The Long March: Civil Rights, Cartoons, & Comics, presented by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and Remembering the Act: Archival Reflections on Civil Rights in 1964, presented by Ohio State’s Thompson Library Gallery, as well as the extraordinary documentary by Thomas Allen Harris Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People.

The Long March: Civil Rights, Cartoons, & Comics

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM) marks the observance of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with The Long March: Civil Rights in Cartoons and Comics, August 16 – November 30, 2014.

The exhibit presents the story of the Civil Rights Movement and its impact through original editorial cartoons, comic strips, and comic books drawn from the BICLM’s collections. It will also include artwork drawn by Nate Powell for March, Congressman John Lewis’s graphic memoir, a New York Times bestseller co-written by Andrew Aydin. March tells the story of Lewis’s experiences as a leader and activist in the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibit, curated by BICLM Curator Jenny E. Robb and Professor of English & Film Studies Jared Gardner, explores the tensions, struggles, and victories from multiple perspectives, including mainstream daily newspapers and the black press.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum will present The Long March: Civil Rights in Cartoons and Comics from August 16 – November 30, 2014. The exhibit presents the story of the Civil Rights Movement and its impact through original editorial cartoons, comic strips, and comic books drawn from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s collections. It will also include artwork drawn by Nate Powell, for March, Congressman John Lewis’s graphic memoir, a New York Times Bestseller co-written by Andrew Aydin, about his experiences as a leader and activist in the movement. The exhibit explores the tensions, struggles, and victories from multiple perspectives, including mainstream daily newspapers and the black press.

Through A Lens Darkly explores how African American communities have used the camera as a tool for social change from the invention of photography to the present. This epic tale poetically moves between the present and the past, through contemporary photographers and artists whose images and stories seek to reconcile legacies of pride and shame while giving voice to images long suppressed, forgotten, and hidden from sight.

Thomas Allen Harris’s award-winning films include Vintage—Families of Value, That’s My Face (E Minha Cara), and Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela. His work has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Biennial, Reina Sofia, the Corcoran Gallery, and on PBS, ARTE, and CBC as well as at the Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Outfest, and FESPACO film festivals. Harris is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Fellowship, and has garnered nominations for several Emmy Awards and an Independent Spirit Award.